A former British para-athlete will run a mammoth ultramarathon from Manchester to London next week.
Elite para athlete and skier Jonny Huntington will be taking on this challenge in preparation for his attempt to become the world's first disabled person to ski solo to the South Pole next year.
After suffering a stroke in 2014, Jonny was paralysed down one side of his body, and after extensive rehab has gained some movement back.
The ultramarathon from Manchester to the capital will test the resilience of his body by putting it through similar stresses he will feel on his expedition in 2024.
The ski to the South Pole will be the first time someone with a disability has ever attempted to ski solo and unsupported across 9 hundred and 11 kilometres of the Antarctic - and it is anticipated it will take him 40 days.
We caught up with Jonny just before he set off on his challenge to complete the ultramarathon from manchester to London.
Elite para athlete and skier Jonny Huntington will be taking on this challenge in preparation for his attempt to become the world's first disabled person to ski solo to the South Pole next year.
After suffering a stroke in 2014, Jonny was paralysed down one side of his body, and after extensive rehab has gained some movement back.
The ultramarathon from Manchester to the capital will test the resilience of his body by putting it through similar stresses he will feel on his expedition in 2024.
The ski to the South Pole will be the first time someone with a disability has ever attempted to ski solo and unsupported across 9 hundred and 11 kilometres of the Antarctic - and it is anticipated it will take him 40 days.
We caught up with Jonny just before he set off on his challenge to complete the ultramarathon from manchester to London.
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00:00 that is something you can't train for, you can't simulate how you're going to feel at the point at
00:05 which the plane flies off. Because at that point there really is like no one for a few hundred
00:13 kilometres." A former British para-athlete will run a mammoth ultramarathon from Manchester to
00:19 London next week. Elite para-athlete and skier Johnny Huntington will be taking on this challenge
00:25 in preparation for his attempt to become the world's first disabled person to ski solo to
00:30 the South Pole next year. After suffering a stroke in 2014, Johnny was paralysed down one side of his
00:37 body and after extensive rehab has gained some movement back. The ultramarathon from Manchester
00:43 to the capital will test the resilience of his body by putting it through similar stresses he
00:47 will feel on his expedition in 2024. The ski to the South Pole will be the first time someone with a
00:54 disability has ever attempted to ski solo and unsupported across 911 kilometres of the Antarctic
01:01 and it is anticipated it will take him 40 days. We caught up with Johnny just before he set off
01:07 on the challenge to complete the ultramarathon from Manchester to London. "I'm really passionate
01:12 about sort of trying to encourage people to look at their motivations, self-belief and resilience
01:21 and how trying to improve those things sort of can help their day to day. And so for me,
01:26 the run is kind of a really good opportunity to obviously get around. I see it as like you lead,
01:30 by example, you do something hard, people can see you doing it. I think it's quite a powerful
01:35 kind of tool in that respect as well. My injury was purely physical. You know, I didn't have any
01:40 cognitive issues as a result of the brain injury or anything like that. So because it's sort of a
01:45 physical injury, there's that element of me that really wanted to kind of push the injury and be
01:50 like, okay, if this is my limiting factor, let's see how far we can push this. I think there's a
01:57 lot to be gained from seeing people doing hard things. The physical side of it is simply going
02:06 to be that my leg is probably about half as strong as it should be. I basically need to make sure
02:11 that I'm as robust as possible to allow my injured side to do 40-ish days in those conditions,
02:20 dragging really heavy weight, etc. All the training I'm doing over the next 12-13 months
02:24 is specifically designed to mitigate all of these factors. During the ultramarathon,
02:30 Johnny is hoping to raise money for multiple charities, including the Armed Forces Paris
02:35 No-Sport Team, and along the way will be visiting schools on his route to show local children that
02:40 anything is possible with self-belief and determination. One hears and reads a lot about
02:46 mental health issues, particularly in young men, and I feel there is hopefully some benefit that
02:52 people can have from what I'm doing now, which is all grounded from my own experiences going through
02:57 injury and rehabilitation. Coming from someone who's lived through those experiences,
03:03 it is more meaningful talking about mental health because there is that element of lived experience.
03:08 I would hate for someone to go through what I went through and feel like they couldn't talk to someone.